1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the visualization, perception, representation and computation of data relating to the attributes or conditions constituting the health state of a dynamic system. More specifically, this invention relates to the display and computation of pulmonary and cardiovascular data, in which variables constituting attributes and conditions of a dynamic physiological system can be interrelated and visually correlated in time as three-dimensional objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of methods and systems for the visualization of data have been proposed. Traditionally, these methods and systems fail to present in a real-time multi-dimensional format that is directed to facilitating a user's analysis of multiple variables and the relationships between such multiple variables. Moreover, such prior methods and systems tend not to be specifically directed to display of a patient's cardiovascular and pulmonary system by showing such variables as blood pressure, blood flow, vascular tone and the like. Prior methods typically do not process and display data in real-time, rather they use databases or spatial organizations of historical data. Generally, they also simply plot existing information in two or three dimensions, but without using three-dimensional geometric objects to show the interrelations between data. Often previous systems and methods are limited to pie charts, lines or bars to represent the data. Also, many previous systems are limited to particular applications or types of data. The flexibility and adaptability of the user interface and control is typically very limited, and may not provide flexible coordinate systems and historical-trend monitors. Other systems, which have a flexible user interface, generally require substantial user expertise in order to collect and evaluate the data, including the pre-identification of data ranges and resolution. Another common limitation of previous systems and methods is that they provide only a single or predetermined viewpoint from which to observe the data. Typically, prior systems and methods do not provide data normalcy frameworks to aid in the interpretation of the data. Furthermore, most prior methods use “icons,” shapes, lines, bars, or graphs.
The state-of-the-art for pulmonary monitored data in both traditional intensive care units and anesthesiology units is the wave form and numeric display monitors. These monitors represent information in discrete variables associated with each sensor using the display paradigm of a “single-sensor-single-indicator-display.” As a result, current monitors lack integrated data. The anesthesiologist is left to collect and process all of the different data herself in a timely manner.
The anesthesiologist is faced with a fire-hose of information during every case. Numerical data, waveforms, control dials, ventilator breaths, heart rate beeps, and alarm sounds bombard the anesthesiologist from all directions. During an uneventful case, the anesthesiologist successfully monitors all the available data at a low cognitive level. However, should an unexpected event happen, the anesthesiologist must quickly ascertain if a problem exists, the causality, and the needed corrective action. Should the anesthesiologist fail at any of these tasks, an error will occur. Human error is associated with more than 80% of critical anesthesia incidents and more than 50% of anesthetic deaths.
Studies have shown that integrated information represented in a graphical metaphor does reduce detection time and time to accurately diagnose a problem in anesthesia. However, the graphical metaphors studied to date tend to be complex and lack usability testing to drive designs. As a result, the graphical interface may inadvertently increase the cognitive workload of the anesthesiologists.
For general background material, the reader is directed to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,908,640, 4,193,393, 4,464,122, 4,519,395, 4,619,269, 4,752,893, 4,772,882, 4,813,013, 4,814,755, 4,823,283, 4,832,038, 4,875,165, 4,880,013, 4,915,757, 4,930,518, 4,989,611, 5,012,411, 5,021,976, 5,103,828, 5,121,469, 5,162,991, 5,222,020, 5,224,481, 5,262,944, 5,317,321, 5,425,372, 5,491,779, 5,568,811, 5,588,104, 5,592,195, 5,596,694, 5,626,141, 5,634,461, 5,751,931, 5,768,552, 5,774,878, 5,796,398, 5,812,134, 5,830,150, 5,836,884, 5,913,826, 5,923,330, 5,961,467, 6,042,548, and 6,090,047 each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for the material disclosed therein.
As this disclosure employs a number of terms, which may be new to the reader, the reader is directed to the applicants' definitions section, which is provided at the beginning of the detailed description section.